An Unforgettable Meal Made With Forgotten Easter Treats

Easter came and went. You dyed the eggs, you hid them, you found them. And now it’s time to deal with them before they go funky in the fridge.

You’ll probably eat a couple out of hand for breakfast or smash one on a piece of toast. Maybe you’ll make a batch of egg salad. But on the third day, resurrect what remains in this egg curry.

Lately it seems like fried eggs have all the fun, what with their golden edges and Instagramable, one-eyed stares. But hard-boiled eggs are bursting with potential, and I’m not just talking about the yolks. The trick is to treat them like any other protein: make them the star of the show, and finish with a flavorful sauce.

About that sauce: yes, you could add a lot of other ingredients to this curry. Fenugreek. Cinnamon. A pinch of clove, or a fresh chile. But I promise you can keep this one simple. The onion, ginger and garlic provide a solid foundation for the spices, giving them a chance to shine.

When you add the dried spices to the onion mixture, you really want to cook them until they get sticky in the pan so that they release the full potential of their flavors. Put your ear to the skillet: the sizzle will slow, it will sound dry. (If you have whole coriander and cumin seed, I highly recommend grinding them yourself. As lazy as I can be in my home kitchen, grinding one’s own spices really does make a difference in a stripped down curry like this.)

Then goes in a russet potato, for texture and body, and a can of super-sweet cherry tomatoes (though you can use whole peeled or even crushed tomatoes if that’s what you have on hand). The point is this is just a pantry meal with the volume turned up. Nothing about it is supposed to be hard except for the eggs. (See what I did there?)

Of course, if you don’t have any hard-boiled eggs already made, you might try using more of a six-minute egg, one with a still runny yolk inside. It may not evoke memories of Easter, but it'll taste like a special occasion nonetheless.